Invite to minister to ride a school bus without a seatbelt

SCHOOL principal invites state's Transport minister to ride on a school bus on the Pacific Hwy, standing in the aisle.

The push continues for the NSW government to introduce seatbelts on Coffs Coast school buses travelling the Pacific Hwy.

FRUSTRATED by inaction on a pre-election promise, a local school principal has issued an invitation to the state's Transport minister to ride on a school bus on the Pacific Hwy, standing in the aisle.

Bishop Druitt College principal Alan Ball believes the minister, Gladys Berejiklian, might act if she saw the danger first hand.

"We share that highway with B-doubles and all sorts of other traffic that is involved in accidents regularly," he said.

"I think we've just been lucky that up until now we haven't had a major calamity with one of our buses.

"It only takes one of the buses to go off the road, it doesn't need to hit another vehicle.

"If kids are standing or indeed sitting on the floor of the bus which some do, it would be a calamity."

Ms Berejiklain established a committee to examine school bus safety in regional NSW in April 2011.

Establishing the committee fulfilled a pre-election pledge by the Liberal and National parties. A pledge championed by Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser.

More than two years later a lack of action on the issue is all that can be shown.

In the meantime the O'Farrell government has failed to respond to a safety recommendation for children not to stand in the aisle of school buses on high speed routes from term three, this year.

South of the border, the Victorian government has agreed to phasing in seatbelts on Victorian school buses in the second half of the year, starting with funding to replace about 80 to 90 older buses a year with buses that meet the safety standards.